Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-10
Luke Short Released from Prison
on a Two Thousand DOL
lar Bond.
Tie Only Witness Of the Inception Of
the Trouble Says thst COPYRIGHT
Palled His Pistol First.
Testimony N the Examining Trial Given
in Dsiaat-CourtriEht's Last Words,
EoE He was Buried.

! cOEslueraDly dOaleu, was yet S2HlcleSLIy
strong to attract a crowd CT people tc
Justice Smiths office yesterday morning
70 listen to the testimony taken before
the jury of inquest. The jur5
returned g verdict briefly setting
forth that deceased died of pistol shots
fred By Luke Shor;.;.
Two O'Clock in the afternoon had seen
set for the pris oner's- examining tria. be-
fore the same Justice, and that hour
most capacity with r. crowd Curious TO
hear every syllable of wnat the witnesses
had to say. The state was represented
Cart, Steadman and CRpps represented
ShCrt.
THE EXAMIN sTION.
Iks Cantrell, the first witness for the
state, testified as follows About O'clock
yesterday evening l was standing on the
corner of Msiu and Second. A few min
utes previous saw Jake Johnson, Short
and CourtrigAt IN close conversation. l
did not witness the shooting. | took
a pistol from tie sesb6ard
on CoErtright's left side. Heard
CourIright say the night before that dirt
had been done him in the White Elephant.
aminsuon-Courtrigh had two
scabbards, but the one on his right side
was empty.
B. F. Herring, the next witness, swore
i was standing in the shooting gallery
and heard the report of a large pistol
COPYRIGHT fell INTO the door close TO
me. The man doing the shooting
stepped up TO the door and fred four
times after COPYRIGHT fell. There were
five others in the gallery. Didn't see the
beginning of the row, land heard no words.
Didn't know the man that fell; he was
falling when Z first saw him, and had
made one step in the door. The man
that did the shooting was standing right
at the door.
Ella Blackwell, the young woman that
runs the shooting gallery, was called, but
was soon let go, as she knew nothing
about the matter beyond having heard
the shots.
William Allison on being sworn said
was behind The counter of the shooting
gallery when the trouble came up, When
COPYRIGHT was falling | saw him pull
pistol out of his pocket. He was pulling
it from the right hip pocket. By the time
he fell to the floor he had the pietol clear
out. He made no effort to shoot after he
fell; he was not able. The man that shot
him fired one shot while COPYRIGHT was
falling and three after he fell.
SOME PRIOR GRIEVANCE.
w. A. James testified: The last time
saw COPYRIGHT was between and :
O'Clock last night. Night before last
saw him in John Stewards saloon
and heard him say to an old
gentleman (McCarty, l think that
there was combination against
him over the White Elephant. He was
sitting in chair by the billiard table.
He said God had made one man superior
to another in muscular power, but when
Colt made his pistol, that made all men
equal. He called Shorts name but said
he didn't aim to do it and did not repeat
it. COPYRIGHT addressed his remarks
to McCarty and they agreed not to
call any names. COPYRIGHT said he had
lived over his time. No man
on earth, he said, had any percentage
over him. He said that this would be
settled within week; that he hadn't
been treated with respect up stairs over
the White Elephant. When he heard the
shooting he was satisfied that Courtright
was into it.
Cross-examined by the state-The con-
versation between COPYRIGHT and Nc
Carly was the night before the killing
COPYRIGHT was considerably under the
influence of whisky at the time, He was
usually inclined to brsggadocio when
drinking.
Frank Astrop was put on the stand, but
nothing material was elected from him.
The next witness was Luke Shorts part
ner, Jake Johnson,
THE ONLY MAN
that saw the starting of the desperate
ARRAY. His evidence was as follows:
alone was present when the diff
Guilty between Short and Court
right occurred. Saw no one else
there. When COPYRIGHT was shot
he fell around into the shooting gallery
COPYRIGHT got his pistol out of the scab-
bard before he was shot. He fell at the
first fire. did not know there was 60
ing to be any difficulty when l called
Short out. COPYRIGHT and l were talk
ing two or three minutes before | called
with Luke, and | called Luke out. They
were three or four feet apart while
talking. Luke had his thumbs
dropped them IN front of him, when
Courtught said "You needn't be getting
out your gun" Luke said 81 havn't got
any gun here, Jim," and raised up his
vest to show him. Here witness showed
the action of defendant. COPYRIGHT
then pulled his pistol. He drew
it first and then Short
drew his and commenced to fire.
One standing IN the shooting gallery
could not see the parties at the beginning
of the difficulty. Short and l are good
friends and we are partners. l was as
good friend of Courtright's as l am to
Short.
1T WOULDN'T OPERATE.
Policeman Fulford was sworn and
said: never saw any part of the stisi
Guilty between Short and Court
right. got to the parties
about the time the last shot
was fired. COPYRIGHT was on his back, a
little inclined to the left. He had pfs.
tol in his right hand, which l took, and
another from the scabbard on his left
side. Officer Pemberton took Shorts
pistol from him. The pistols are now in
my possession.
Cross-examined-I got there about the
time that COPYRIGHT fell. The pistol
held in his right hand was
about half cooked and there was
cartridge in it which kept it from re-
yefving smoothly. COPYRIGHT remarked
10 me, "Ful, they've got me-" Those
u,era tho only words he smoke